Canada—the cold, snowy, hockey-crazed country to our north—would like your attention. It has a lot to teach the world about tennis.

As the U.S. Open moves toward Labor Day weekend, Canada is in the midst of a remarkable tennis season. Eugenie Bouchard, a 20-year-old from Montreal, has reached at least the semifinals of all three Grand Slam tournaments this year, including a final appearance at Wimbledon. Milos Raonic, a 23-year-old native Montenegrin who grew up in the Toronto area, got to the Wimbledon semifinal and is now considered a contender for a major title.

There are other Canadians who prefer serving to stickhandling: Vasek Pospisil, who won this year's Wimbledon doubles title with American Jack Sock, and Francoise Abanda, a 17-year-old who gave former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki a fight before losing in the first round of the Open this week.

Canada has terrible tennis weather, low population density and no tennis pedigree: No Canadian has ever won a Grand Slam singles title. Raonic, who is the No. 5 seed at the Open, said none of that mattered much once Tennis Canada, the country's tennis federation, honed its approach to developing talent.

"It wasn't run like a federation," Raonic said. "It was run like a private business. It was, 'Let's find who's the best in that moment, and put them with this player.' "

For Raonic, that meant moving to Spain for two years to train when he was 19. "They set that up," he said.

Michael Downey,
the former CEO of Tennis Canada and now the chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association in Britain, shared the most important lesson he learned while on the job in Canada from 2004 to 2013.

"Federations do not develop champions," Downey said. "If a federation thinks they actually develop a champion, they are out to lunch. You assist. You are improvising." To finance Raonic's training in Spain, Tennis Canada raised money from donors.

Another rule: Don't shun tennis parents, even if they are every bit as pushy and difficult as the stereotype suggests.

"We brought in all of the coaches and trained them in conflict management," Downey said. The training was run by
Roger Martin,
the former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and onetime chair of the Tennis Canada board. "They were skeptical, but Roger said, 'Look, this is a life skill.' "

Downey also warned against devoting large sums to player development. "More money can mean you do too much and you don't have any focus," he said. "Part of the success with Tennis Canada is we had no money but we went out and raised it when we needed it." Now that he is at the LTA, one of the world's richest tennis organizations, Downey said he wants his employees "spending money as if it was their own."

These revelations didn't come easily. It took a lot of success from Canada's two best players before the federation adopted a more open approach.

Downey, a marketer who had worked for the Toronto Raptors and Maple Leafs, came to Tennis Canada with no connection to tennis. He hired Louis Borfiga, a key coach in France's development program, and Bob Brett, who has coached many top players, including Boris Becker. The organization hired more foreign coaches and built a national training center in Montreal.

"I think initially there was a bit of, it's our way or no way," Downey said.

And then along came Raonic, who trained with a private coach in Toronto until he was 16, and Bouchard, whose family moved to Florida so she could train with Nick Saviano, who has taught many top pros over the years.

The Bouchards' wishes weren't well received, but they were persistent. Tennis Canada began funding Bouchard's training with Saviano when she was 18. "If we didn't keep pushing as we did, we wouldn't have gotten this far," said Julie Leclair, Bouchard's mother.

The U.S. Tennis Association recently adopted a Canadianesque philosophy when it decided to take fewer full-time students at its academy. "We started to bring in more kids for a shorter time and keep their own teams involved," said
Patrick McEnroe,
the USTA's general manager of player development.

America still has
Serena Williams
,
top female pros and young female and male talent, but it hasn't had a man win a major singles title since 2003. McEnroe said the country's higher expectations means it must be able to develop players and assist private coaches. "They're dealing with a whole different animal than we are," he said. "We have to do both."

Raonic said that no matter what a federation does, it is a player's determination that matters most. "It doesn't matter what you surround the kid with, that kid has to win that point," he said. "How to develop, how to create a champion—there is no direct answer."

Bouchard agreed. "It's more luck than anything else that we came up at the same time," she said.

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